How dark money endangers N.Y.

Attention, New Yorkers. It's the 11th hour of campaign season. Do you know who's trying to buy the state Senate?

No, you don't — and it's getting harder than ever to find out.

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This is because the wealthy donors backing Republicans and Democrats alike are making increasingly brazen end-runs around campaign finance rules.

Emboldened by the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, deep-pocketed groups are blowing past contribution limits. They're disguising their true identities and real agendas. And they're bamboozling the public with attack ads that range from deceptive to flat-out false.

In short, they're dragging state politics deeper than usual into the gutter. And they're getting away with it — thanks to tractor-trailer-sized loopholes in state law and a dozing Board of Elections.

With majority control of the state Senate hanging in the balance, special-interest cash is pouring into a handful of competitive races — including hard-fought contests in Queens, Westchester and Rochester.

Going to bat for Democrats is the statewide teachers' union. As the Daily News' Kenneth Lovett has reported, the union's political action committee plans to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on TV ads and mailers attacking GOP candidates — including City Councilman Eric Ulrich, who's locked in a tight race against Democratic Sen. Joe Addabbo in Queens.

Running interference for Republicans, meanwhile, is a shadowy outfit calling itself "Common Sense Principles," which is lobbing nasty attacks at Addabbo and other Democrats. How much it's spending and where the money comes from are mysteries, because the group has failed even to register with the state Board of Elections.

The teachers union's agenda is clear enough: It wants revenge on the GOP for capping property taxes and trimming government pensions — necessary changes that teachers bitterly opposed.

But you wouldn't know it from the first union attack ad to become public, aimed at Rochester Republican Sean Hanna.

First, the union concealed its involvement by listing the sponsor as VOTE/COPE — an acronym for its political action committee that few average voters would have a clue about.

Second, the spot says nothing about schools or education, but instead slams Hanna for his positions on women's rights, gun control and drilling for natural gas.

Compounding the deception, the ad attacks Hanna for raising property taxes as a county legislator — an action that the teachers union generally cheers. What it doesn't mention is that Hanna voted to cap property taxes as an assemblyman.

At least NYSUT will eventually disclose this spending in reports to the Board of Elections.

But Common Sense Principles operates completely off the radar — leaving the public to wonder who its donors are, how much they're giving or what advantage they might gain from keeping Republicans in charge of the Senate.

They've slimed Hanna's Democratic opponent, Ted O'Brien, for supposedly being anti-woman based solely on his past political endorsement of a judge who had been accused of — but never formally charged with — sexual harassment.

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And they're smearing Addabbo as supposedly being the puppet of financier George Soros — apparently based on Soros' history of financial support for Democrats in the state Senate.

Since the group's backers insist on hiding behind anonymity, there's no way of holding it accountable for misleading or false claims.

All we know for sure is that the name of Thomas Paine — the Founding Father is claims as its inspiration — is misspelled at the top of its website, as Capital New York points out.

The worst part of this situation is that the Board of Elections was under orders to crack down on Wild West campaign spending by outside groups.

The ethics reform law pushed through by Gov. Cuomo last year called for the board to issue regulations by January 2012. Now, it's October, and the rules still aren't finalized. Plus, as drafted, they would only apply to ads that explicitly say, "vote for" or "vote against" a particular candidate — giving groups like Common Sense Principles a free pass.

The Citizens United ruling is no excuse . The Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional to ban or limit political spending by individuals or corporations — but states still have the power to require disclosure.